Key Roles and Activities of TT/KE/KT Professionals
Information
People working in TT/KE/KT are expected to be committed to the exchange of knowledge for the benefit of society; to operate with honesty and integrity; and display personal and professional credibility.
They are likely to be undertaking the following kinds of roles and activities (not a comprehensive list) using a combination of the broad competencies which are recognised by the global RTTP framework.
Partnership building
- Building strategic partnerships with industry, businesses, and public organizations in regional, national or international contexts
- Developing programmes of collaborative research and innovation between knowledge- based organisations and businesses
- Establishing and managing centres for cooperative research and/or innovation with a translational focus
Managing partnering services
- Running business or sector networks to encourage engagement between the knowledge base and partners
- Managing consultancy and services/ facilities which transfer knowledge and know-how
- Developing programmes of collaborative education and training between knowledge- based organisations and businesses
- Managing B2B and U2B marketing campaigns
IP exploitation
- Managing, advancing and de-risking knowledge assets such as inventions, innovations and intellectual property portfolios
- Creating commercial intellectual property strategies leading to licensing intellectual property and creating spin-outs that create products and services
- Providing legal advice or counsel on protecting inventions and innovations for example through patents, design rights, trademarks and copyright and other forms of non-formal intellectual property rights such as know-how
Knowledge economy
- Building regional or national innovation infrastructure to promote economic development
- Running incubators, science Parks and scale-up programmes
- Raising and managing funding for translation and future utilization of knowledge and research
- Raising and managing proof of concept, accelerator and venture capital funds.
Innovation leadership
- Reshaping and restructuring organizations such as companies, universities and public bodies to optimize innovation and transfer/ exchange of knowledge/ technology
- Training and developing people to become entrepreneurial and to gain skills for collaboration and transfer of knowledge and technology
- Acting as public stewards of innovation for economic and societal benefit
- Advocacy, awareness raising and lobbying in innovation, intellectual property and commercial research policy development